US Germans Following The "Road To Germany" -- July 30, 2018

A recurring theme on the blog is that the "global warming" movement is a scam. It is simply cronyism, transferring US wealth from gullible Americans to friends/lobbyists in the wind/solar business through the Federal government, literally a type of money laundering, or wealth transfer if "money laundering" is too inflammatory. [Money laundering? See this post, and perhaps even better, this link.]

This is why faux environmentalists are faux:

• solar and wind energy will never be able to meet significant demands for electricity; solar and wind will simply have a niche role; and,
• the only thing that can supplant fossil fuel and lower CO2 emissions -- for what it's worth -- is going to be nuclear energy

In fact, we are now starting to see the demise of nuclear energy worldwide (previously posted; see below). And in the US? Nuclear energy is dead -- 2017.

Now this article from Iowa: NextEra will retire an Iowa nuclear plant in less than two years. Wow. Another nuclear plant to be retired. Data points:

• Duane Arnold nuclear plant
• 601 MW
• at $2.5 million / MW, it would take a $1.5 billion wind farm to replace that one nuclear reactor; apparently there is already adequate wind energy to cover this nuclear plant closing
• the #1 buyer of electricity from this nuclear plant, Alliant Energy, will buy its electricity from NextEra wind farms
• utility customers in Wisconsin are promised to see lower utility bills -- LOL -- let's come back to this in ten years
• the college students in Madison, WI, will feel good with the deal, although their parents who actually pay the utility bills may not have the same feeling
• short term, Alliant will have to pay $110 million for this deal -- I assume these "costs savings" will be passed onto their customers

Wisconsin, Iowa: huge, huge German-ancestry population. They may want to click on "road-to-Germany."  

It will be interesting to see what the rate is next year and five years out. In 2011, Wisconsin paid an average of 13 cents/kwh. Now, in 2018, Wisconsin, the average rate is 15.21 cents.

From 2018, chooseenergy.com, the ten states with the lowest cost for electricity:

Highest electricity rates -- wow, look at Massachusetts, which is likely to get Amazon HQ2:

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Energy Demand By Source

With demise of nuclear energy, fossil fuel demand will grow.

Coal isn't going away.

Crude oil will continue to grow.

Renewables will really grow, but remember: renewable energy includes hydroelectric power.

Nuclear power doesn't grow much either. And then this, US nuclear power industry on verge of collapse, July 12, 2018.

It's hard to read, but I do believe the rate of growth of natural gas is actually steeper than renewable energy in the out-years.